In a major victory for the Muslim women, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved an ordinance making triple talaq a punishable offence. The move comes after the government had failed to pass it through both houses of Parliament.
Federal Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told a news conference the cabinet approved the decree because Triple Talaq has nothing to do with faith or mode of worship or religion; it is purely about gender justice, dignity and equality.
Hitting at the opposition party, Prasad said, “It’s my serious charge with full sense of responsibility that a distinguished woman leader is ultimate leader of the Congress, yet barbaric inhuman triple talaq was not allowed to be ended by a Parliamentary law for pure vote bank politics.”
Triple talaq is the practice of Muslim men getting an instant divorce by saying the word ‘talaq’ thrice. The Supreme Court last year banned this practice, but since the practice was still prevalent, a bill was brought to make it a penal offence.
The ‘Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Bill’ was cleared by the Lok Sabha in the winter session of Parliament and is pending in the Rajya Sabha where the government lacks numbers.
The government recently made amendments to the Triple Talaq Bill. The core component of this Ordinance is that an offence will be cognizable only when the FIR is filed by the victim wife or her close relations by blood or marriage.
